


That Old Domani Magic

by adalger



Category: Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-20
Updated: 2011-05-20
Packaged: 2017-10-19 15:39:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/202459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adalger/pseuds/adalger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leane makes a decision in Admer Nem's barn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Old Domani Magic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



It was dark in the barn, but the gaps in the roof let in enough moonlight to see. Some were large enough for stargazing, even. To Leane, one tiny dot of light was much like another, but she knew Siuan was proud of the knowledge she retained of the sky. _What do I have to be proud of_ , Leane wondered?  _I have old, dried out scraps from my childhood, and memories of what filled a now-empty larder._

She looked at Siuan in the moonlight. They had been together for so long, as long as many married couples, that it sometimes seemed they could see into each other’s heads. They had shared the intimacy of linking, too, often enough. Leane could call up Siuan’s emotions in her head right now, could feel her react to what Leane was considering.

Leane knew Min was asleep. She had practically been snoring when she woke Leane up for her watch. She listened to Logain’s breathing for a hundred-count to satisfy herself that he, too, was safely unconscious, then knelt beside the pile of straw where Siuan slept. She shook Siuan awake. This was as good an opportunity as she was likely to get.

“It’s your watch,” Leane whispered, fixing her eyes on the floor. She let her voice lie flat, the lassitude of helplessness struggling against despair. Sniffling now would be overdoing it. Siuan was hardly a tavern rough or dock worker, after all. Leane had as much restraint as anyone would ever need. The tricky bit was letting go of  _just enough_  but not  _too much_.

Leane enjoyed tricky. She would never have let herself become Keeper if she didn’t. It was a compelling game, being near the ways of power, and the more so when the stakes were high. She had lost, she reminded herself, and lost as much as a woman could lose. She let herself feel the loss, let it roll over and through her, clung to it. She needed the pain right now, the fear and desperation. Siuan would know her as well as she knew Siuan, and without genuine emotion, she would never carry off the answer to the question she expected.

She waited patiently as Siuan sat up. She listened to the rustle of Siuan’s shift against the straw.  _I lost, Siuan. I lost for both of us. Your loss is my fault, too._  She watched Siuan’s feet swing to the floor in front of her.  _I have worse than killed us, Mother. I have made us nothing._  She piled as much guilt as she could upon herself, felt its weight, begged it to crush her. She felt the brief stir of air against her cheek that was Siuan’s morning exhalation. She drew Aes Sedai calm over her emotions, and even that grated against her ragged control. It was one more reminder of what she had lost.

“What’s twisting your tail, Leane? You look like a grunter without any scales.” Siuan found such colorful ways to say boring things, sometimes. It was always a pleasure to watch her spring dock-talk on powerful nobles, and on merchants so wealthy they might as well be lords. Another pleasure she would never have again, now that Siuan looked no more than the fisherman’s brat she had started as.

“Siuan,” Leane said, “I don’t know if I can do this.” Her breath came quickly, shallow, weak. Her hand fluttered a little where it rested on Siuan’s knee. “I’m nothing. I’ve lost everything I ever was, and everything I ever wanted. You were always there to protect me, and now it’s all gone!” She was crying openly as she finished. She put on her best helpless face and let the tears fall as she raised her eyes to meet Siuan’s.

Siuan stared back, mouth slightly open. Her eyes wavered for a bare instant, tracking somewhere over Leane’s right shoulder, giving away nothing to anyone who didn’t know her at least as well as Leane. In fact, Leane wouldn’t even have noticed, she admitted to herself, if she hadn’t bent her whole mind to reading Siuan, to predicting her, in this moment. She was winning only because Siuan didn’t know the game was being played, but she would take what she could get. For all her homeland had rejected her, Siuan was Tairen to the core. A little misdirection, a little subtlety, would befuddle her. One more play and Siuan would be hers.

Siuan’s mouth firmed to a hard, thin line.  _That’s right, Siuan. Be ashamed of my weakness._  As Siuan’s hands closed on her shoulders, Leane collapsed inside the shaking Siuan had intended to give her and buried her face against Siuan’s chest. Just a touch higher with her chin, so her hair brushed Siuan’s neck instead of tickling it. The feel of skin against her ear let Leane know Siuan would feel her tears trickling down the inside of her breast. Perfect.

With nowhere else to go, Siuan’s hands settled on Leane’s back. A breath, then two, passed in silence.  _Now_. Leane sniffled quietly, barely enough to be noticed.

“Fish guts,” Siuan muttered angrily. She pulled Leane up to sit next to her. With her left hand on the back of Leane’s head, she tipped the taller woman’s face down to her own and looked into her eyes. “Leane, if you want to bed me, you’d best remember I’m a woman. Just because all your Domani tricks expect a man to hold all the power, that doesn’t make them work on me.”

Leane laughed, low and quiet, but whole-heartedly. “Yes, Siuan. I should know better than to try that on you.” She leaned into Siuan’s lips, unexpectedly soft, and claimed her reward. “No more games.” She smiled, and kissed Siuan’s cheek, then pressed her down on the straw. Who needed the One Power when she had this kind of magic?


End file.
